Women’s Freemasonry in the Age of Enlightenment
Stereotypes on the Right and the Left
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/jrff.v4i1.11Keywords:
Women, lodges of adoption, contemporary responsesAbstract
This paper examines the reactions that women in freemasonry have received from both the left and the right. Neither side seems to have a very clear understanding and sexism lurks in many of these assessments. It then turns to what is now known about women in the eighteenth century European freemasonry with the proviso that there is still a great deal that we do not know about women’s involvement in the lodges. Perhaps only for France do we have a fairly detailed picture of where the lodges of adoption could be found and the nature of their membership.
References
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Archives générales, Brussels, MS 1105 A 124.
Bibliothèque Arsenal, MS 11556 f. 347. The spy d’Advenel writing on February 5, 1746.
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Jacob, M. C. The Origins of Freemasonry: Facts and Fictions. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2005.
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Lilti, A. Le Monde des salons: Sociabilité et mondanité à Paris au XVIIIe siècle. Paris: Fayard, 2005.
Melton, J. van Horn. The Rise of the Public in Enlightenment Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001, 148–57, 210, 82.
Mornet, D. Les origines intellectuelles de la re?volution française, 1715–1787. Paris: Librairie Armand Colin, 1933.
O’Brien K. Women and Enlightenment in Eighteenth-Century Britain. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511576317
Outram, D. The British Journal for the History of Science 34(4) (2001): 464–66. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0007087401294564
Petchesky, R. Pollack. ‘Morality and Personhood: a Feminist Perspective’ in Ethics: A Feminist Reader, eds Frazer, E. et. al. Oxford: Blackwell, 1992.
Rendall, J. ‘Feminizing the Enlightenment: The Problem of Sensibility,’ in The Enlightenment World, eds. Fitzpatrick, M. et al. New York: Routledge, 2004.
Spivak, G. Chakravorty. ‘French Feminism Revisited,’ in Feminists Theorize the Political, eds Judith Butler and Joan W. Scott. New York: Routledge, 1992.
Taylor, B. ‘Feminism and the Enlightenment 1650–1850.’ History Workshop Journal 47 (Spring 1999): 261–72. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/hwj/1999.47.261
Venturi, F. Settecento riformatore. Turin: Einaudi, 1969.
[Anon.]. The Cabinet, by a Society of Gentlemen. London. J. March. 1795.
[Anon.], Essai sur les Mysteres et le veritable objet des Franc-Maçons, second edition. Amsterdam 1776. First edition. Paris. 1771.
Archives générales, Brussels, MS 1105 A 124.
Bibliothèque Arsenal, MS 11556 f. 347. The spy d’Advenel writing on February 5, 1746.
Bibliotheque Nationale MS FM 4 76, a collection of Scottish rite rituals.
Bibliotheque Nationale. FM 2 3°9, 24 June 1782. Bibliotheque Nationale Fr 15176, ff. 17–18, 25–26, 29.
The Grand Lodge of the Netherlands, Kloss MSS, 190 E 47.
Secondary Sources:
Applewhite, H. and D. Levy, eds. Women and Politics in the Age of the Democratic Revolution. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 1990.
Berman, R. The Foundation of Modern Freemasonry. The Grand Architects. Political Change and the Scientific Enlightenment 1714–1740. Brighton: Sussex Academic Press, 2012.
Butler, J. and J. Scott, eds. Feminists Theorize the Political. New York: Routledge, 1992.
Fitzpatrick, M. et. al. The Enlightenment World. New York: Routledge, 2004.
Flax, J. ‘The End of Innocence,’ in Feminists Theorize the Political, eds. Butler, J. and J. Scott. New York: Routledge.
Frazer, E. et.al. Ethics: A Feminist Reader. Oxford: Blackwell,1992.
Gadol, J. K. ‘Did Women have a Renaissance?’ Available at: http://isites.harvard.edu/fs/docs/icb.topic205827.files/October_22/Kelly_Did_Women_Have_a_Renaissance.pdf. Accessed on March 31, 2014.
Harland-Jacobs, J. Builders of Empire: Freemasons and British Imperialism, 1717–1927. Chapel Hill, NC: The University of North Carolina Press, 2007.
Israel, J. Radical Enlightenment: Philosophy and the Making of Modernity 1650–1750. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198206088.001.0001
Israel, J. Enlightenment Contested: Philosophy, Modernity, and the Emancipation of Man 1670–1752. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006.
Jacob, M. C. Living the Enlightenment: Freemasonry and Politics in Eighteenth Century Europe. New York: Oxford University Press, 1991.
Jacob, M. C. The Origins of Freemasonry: Facts and Fictions. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2005.
Jacob, M. C. The Radical Enlightenment. London: George Allen & Unwin, 1981. Second edition revised. Cornerstone Books. 2006.
Jacob, M. C. Strangers Nowhere in the World. Philadelphia, PA: Penn Press, 2006.
Kamuf, P. ed. A Derrida Reader: Between the Blinds. New York: Columbia University Press, 1991.
Lilti, A. Le Monde des salons: Sociabilité et mondanité à Paris au XVIIIe siècle. Paris: Fayard, 2005.
Melton, J. van Horn. The Rise of the Public in Enlightenment Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001, 148–57, 210, 82.
Mornet, D. Les origines intellectuelles de la re?volution française, 1715–1787. Paris: Librairie Armand Colin, 1933.
O’Brien K. Women and Enlightenment in Eighteenth-Century Britain. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511576317
Outram, D. The British Journal for the History of Science 34(4) (2001): 464–66. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0007087401294564
Petchesky, R. Pollack. ‘Morality and Personhood: a Feminist Perspective’ in Ethics: A Feminist Reader, eds Frazer, E. et. al. Oxford: Blackwell, 1992.
Rendall, J. ‘Feminizing the Enlightenment: The Problem of Sensibility,’ in The Enlightenment World, eds. Fitzpatrick, M. et al. New York: Routledge, 2004.
Spivak, G. Chakravorty. ‘French Feminism Revisited,’ in Feminists Theorize the Political, eds Judith Butler and Joan W. Scott. New York: Routledge, 1992.
Taylor, B. ‘Feminism and the Enlightenment 1650–1850.’ History Workshop Journal 47 (Spring 1999): 261–72. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/hwj/1999.47.261
Venturi, F. Settecento riformatore. Turin: Einaudi, 1969.
Published
2014-12-30
Issue
Section
Articles
How to Cite
Jacob, M. C. (2014). Women’s Freemasonry in the Age of Enlightenment: Stereotypes on the Right and the Left. Journal for Research into Freemasonry and Fraternalism, 4(1-2), 11–23. https://doi.org/10.1558/jrff.v4i1.11
